I was on a talk show the other day defending the Second Amendment and discussing with my host the stupid, unconstitutional and woefully inadequate D.C. gun ban. I made it clear that I am a Christian who is extremely cool (to the point of being giddy) with our right to keep and bear arms.
After we trounced the anti-gun lobby for their goofy, doe-eyed, John Lennon-like “Imagine” solutions to violent crime, we opened up the phone lines for folks to weigh in with their two cents. The first caller was a woman who asked if I thought Jesus would carry a weapon if He were here today, to which I quickly replied, yes, of course He would—especially if He lived in Miami and was driving down I-95 at four o’clock in the morning.
The female caller, being far more spiritual than I am, didn’t think it was funny and went on to make it personal by asking if someone were attacking one of my daughters and I had a gun if I thought Christ would be cool with me killing the felonious freak. I told her that I sure hoped He would because otherwise He’d be terribly disappointed in me and would just have to forgive me. Common sense and primal instinct tell me that the bad guy should die and the good girl should live. Call me carnal.
Of course the holier-than-me caller was aghast that as a Christian I would have no problem whatsoever defending my friends, family, person and possessions with deadly force. Her reason being was that she couldn’t picture Jesus doing it and concluded that because she couldn’t wrap her mind around Him green-lighting the destruction of a demented perp that He certainly wouldn’t and thus I shouldn’t.
When discussing what Christ would do in a given situation, it’s usually good to actually go to the gospels, read them and then draw conclusions. Here’s what I’ve gotten after scouring Scripture a few times:
1. Jesus in His earthly ministry didn’t carry a weapon except the time when He took a whip (a whip! You gotta love it!) and Billy Jack’ed the televangelists out of the temple. He didn’t chide them or write them a strong but tasteful e-mail asking them to please not do that kind of stuff in church.
What did the meek and mild Messiah do? He whipped them. God, I hope you got that on DVD for me to watch when I get to heaven. I wonder if the Christ-is-a-pacifist-wuss-lady can picture sweet Jesus laying the leather to the backs of the marketers who were making His father’s house a place of merchandise.
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